Show SEVIER LAKE As it was and Is it being neat nearly y extinct the surrounding scenery description of the spot where captain gunnison and party were massacred by indians indiana SALT LAKIC LAKE CITY aug 2 1887 editor deseret news E since my first arrival in utah 21 spears ears ago I 1 have heard a great many conflicting stories about the Ni cholet or devler lake situated in the great valley millard county some have described it as a beautiful fresh water lake with well defined shores others as au an immense salt marsh that could co aid not oe be approached without imminent danger to the adventurer of sinking down his bis full length in mud without any possible chance of extracting tr himself and the indians indiana have told the most ridiculous stories about monsters and huge serpents inhabiting its briny waters and even to this day shun it as a haunted place it is true toe lake has been visited by a number of ef persons at various times in 1852 we understand the first party ot white men consisting of albert carrington joseph joseh A young and others visited its shores and at that time found a lake with well defined shores about thirty miles ion long and from ei eight dit to fifteen miles wide and having an average depth of some six or seven feet but since the weiters waters of the sevier river the only feeder the lake has have been utilized for irrigation purposes has gradually dried up until the r question of late years has arisen whether chetner or not there were any water at all lett left in it having received au an invitation from bisho bishop jos S black of deseret to accod pany any him on a trip to the desert r I 1 left salt lake city by the utah central train on the afternoon of aug and arrived in deseret about midnight the next morn jul ing aug bishop black dr br john R park and david R allen alien of salt lake city joseph S black jr of deseret and your correspondent started from deseret with two horse teams kindly furnished by the bishop byron warner a resident of deseret accompanied us as down the river about six miles to the spot where capt J W gu gunnison and escort were I 1 killed ft lne b by jj lu yan an indians early on the morning september september 1853 on that thai memorable day just as the party were sitting down to breakfast they were surprised by a company of indians who killed captain gunnison mr R if kern t topographer 0 0 9 eapher of the party M mr r C r e a f en t botanist william potter of manti mant guide three soldiers liptrott cau caulfield eld and and one employed ye john Jolin bellows the captain was kill killed le d a few hundred yards from camp while attempting to mach the horses and the others were killed at various points in and around the camp and their bodies were suase found strung through the greasewood for a distance of about three quarte qu artere of a mile only tour four of the abt py y escaped leaving instruments animals and all the baggage in possession of the indians through athe 1 the prompt action of governor brig brigham tam young who immediately upon bearing hearing the sad patched uto DB huntington indian interpreter ter preter weh with a sufficient clent par t 0 the scene of disaster most of t the K e I 1 lost oat property was recovered and what remained of the bodies was gathered up and buried oct ath this party found that the flesh odthe of the bodies had almost entirely been eaten by wolves and the bones gnawed and widely scattered but alter after a careful and patient search they succeeded in obtaining nearly the entire skeleton of mr potter some of the hair and thigh bone of captain gunnison and several bones of the balance of the party the latter were all calef carefully ally buried on the spot and the relics of captain gunnison and mr potter were taken to fillmore and aad interred this massacre was the direct result of the foolish and reckless conduct of a party of emigrants from the states on their way to california by the southern route who killed a indian on corn creek an and d wounded two others a short time previous hence followed the indian rule of revenge on the next american party found on their grounds byron warner our guide being the only man in that part of the country who took part in the burial of the murdered men and could tell the exact spot where the massacre took place he found it without difficulty and pointed out to us the 8 spot where Gunni sons camp was loc located where the camp fireck were kindled in I 1 ed where when the captain himself was killed and where the dead bodies were found and finally interred bishop black had squared a large ceder cedar post which we brought along and dug in the ground on the identical spot where the oodles bodies were buried strange enough this is the first monument of any kind that has ever been raised by friendly hands bands to mark thelast the last resting places of these unfortunate men and ana as was not now the least trace to be found of the grave we had entirely to rely on the good memory of our guide it was with solemn feelings fee linga we listened to his bis recital of the incidents connected with the unpleasant task of burying the bodies which had bad lain on top of the ground about ten days before they were interred leaving ISIS is memorable spot we drove about nv Amiles to the little sett lemed stalled lake town I 1 also known as ingersoll consisting of about a dozen families living in a scattered condition along the river alter after partaking of the hospitality of elder henry W hale who presided over the few saints there we continued our journey over the desert in a southwesterly direction for nearly twenty miles further and finally camped on the sevier near the upper end of ef the lake but as the river is entirely dry except where there are standing pools of water the lake is not led fed by it at the present time we camped when the sun san was nearly two i hours high and tile the doctor struck out on toot westward following the course of the river bed for several miles out into the lake bottom where your sor correspondent respondent crossed the river bedana bed and proceeded southward over the desert to the northeast arm of the lake but found no wate rHe walked through the mud for some distance until he reached a small salt island from which looking southward he could see nothing but a salty miry lake bottom for miles along but far beyond the frisco mountains Mount aias raise their lofty summits heavenward on the west the saw thoth mountains a spur of the hanse range obstructs the view northward the desert and a desert it truly is stretches its dreary waste far away eastward is the ricket cricket mountains a lowrange lowrange running in a northeasterly direction if any new arrivals or any of the ile I 1 strangers within our gates would like to see how utah as a whole looked booked when the mormon pioneers first came here in 1847 1 would advise them to take a trip to the lower end of the early on the morning of the we our journey and soon found au ourselves ir selves passing along the lake shore but no water in sight anywhere atter after traveling about fifteen miles through through one of the wildest and most f forbidding ng countries I 1 ever saw we mooned on the west shore of the lake without water and made up our mind to return with the assurance that the sevier lake was a thing of the past the shores jf ef the lake that once existed was marked very plainly by a gravelly beach some six feet above the resent present level of the lake bottom while the horses were feeding dr park and the writer concluded to proceed on foot to a rocky prominence which appeared to be distant southward about a mile but we found it more like five miles before we got to it from the top of this prominence ebee we had bad a fine view of the lake surface w as our surprise we discovered not far from shore that which we so long had looked for in vai vain n water lor miles north and south 10 faring earing that it might be a for we nad had previously beed deceived by a number of beautiful beautia ul mirages it was decided that tho the writer should wade out from cuore suore suo to the waters edge this however was found to be no easy task for he had not net proceeded fat fai when he he found himself breaking with his bare feet a crust of salt about four inches thick resting on top of stinking soft mud which became deeper and deeper as he advanced from the shore finally after working hard bard scooping away the salt with his hands and feet in order to make a passage he reached the edge of the water and thus established the fact that there is i 88 still ti 11 water in the lake after returning to the wagon brother allen alien with much exertion waded out through the salt and mud a few miles north of the point previously named and secured two bottles of the brine and also some of the salt tor for analytical purposes we were weke now satisfied anat tile the sevier lake at the present time of low water consists of an immense mud bottom covered with from four to ten inch inches es of salt the top of which is covered some distance out oat from shore with a very little water perhaps not exceeding six inches where it is the deepest brother allen alien having reached the shore in a somewhat seme what exhausted condi bior we started on our homeward journey after sundown and after traveling for about five boars baars most of the time without a finally reached our camp ground of the previous night about midnight all pretty tired especially ally the horses who had been without water all day on friday august jtb 2 we returned to dese deseret t where we arrived safe and well at 3 p in fully satisfied with our discoveries and adventures ANDREW |